Cell Phone Use In Accidents May Be Tallied By Patrol

Published: February 25, 1999 12:00 AM

State lawmakers want to know if cell phone use is driving up Ohio's auto accident rate.

The House Finance and Appropriations Committee tacked a provision into the state's two-year transportation budget Wednesday requiring the State Highway Patrol to compile statistics on the role cellular telephone use may have in auto accidents.

"I think this is a very valid amendment," said state Rep. Rex Damschroder, R-Fremont. "Driving while making a call on a cell phone is almost comparable to driving drunk."

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has indicated that cell phone use is becoming an increasing safety hazard, but said it lacks solid information. Previous federal government studies indicate driver inattention accounts for nearly half of all auto accidents.

The New England Journal of Medicine published a Canadian study in 1997 concluding that talking on a cell phone while driving quadrupled the risk of an accident, making the activity nearly as dangerous as driving when legally drunk.

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Rep. Jeanine Perry, D-Toledo, offered the amendment, saying that patrol accident reports already include an area for noting driver inattention, but that a further examination of the causes of inattention is needed, starting with cell phones.

The proposal drew jeers from several fellow lawmakers who questioned the limitation of reporting requirements to phone use and the logic of placing further impositions on investigating patrol units.

Rep. Dennis Stapleton, R-Washington Court House, said the information about accidents involving cell phones could be gleaned from other sources than patrol reports.

The amendment passed 16-14 on a bipartisan vote.

The provision was one of several items placed into the $5.2 billion, two-year spending plan. The transportation budget provides money for the Ohio Department of Transportation, the highway patrol, the Department of Public Safety and allocates funds to other state programs including the Ohio Department of Natural Resources' waterway safety fund.

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Using the bulk of the 22-cent state gasoline tax, the transportation department expects to spend about $2.4 billion in the next two years on construction programs while nearly another $1 billion is directed toward maintenance of state highways.

The committee also increased the share of the gas tax going toward the waterway safety fund.

Damschroder, who chairs the subcommittee that analyzed the transportation spending plan, said a recent state study indicates boaters pay about one cent of every dollar in gas taxes. He said boaters should get their share of money returned from the state for waterway purposes.

The provision increases the fund's gas tax take from about $6 million a year to $9.5 million, a fraction of the more than $1.3 billion annually the state collects in gas taxes. The new money must be used for boating access facilities, dredging rivers and lakes and boater education and safety.

Damschroder said the state has more than 400,000 registered boats with more than 1,700 new boats added each year.

"We need to keep up with boater education programs and boater safety," he said.

The bill, which is scheduled for a House floor vote March 3, also contains provisions to soften the impact on motorists of a new random auto insurance verification program to ensure they are complying with the state's financial responsibility law implemented in 1995.

Lawmakers have heard complaints from drivers who fear their licenses will be suspended because they were not at home for a long period of time or had moved and did not receive the mailed notice to show proof of insurance.

Under the law, Ohio drivers are required to carry proof of financial responsibility, such as car insurance, and produce that proof to law enforcement officers at the scene of an accident, when being issued a traffic citation or during a vehicle safety inspection.

To foster the new mail inquiry, the bill requires a third notice to be sent by certified mail and to warn motorists they have 30 days to prove to the state they have insurance. For those whose licenses are suspended for not having insurance, the BMV will notify law enforcement that those licenses are suspended for not complying with the random check program.

A motorist who failed to comply with the random check and is under suspension, could receive a citation from a law enforcement agency, but could not be arrested or have a vehicle impounded because of the failure.

The bill also allows those suspended by random notice who subsequently prove they have insurance to get their full driving privileges reinstated without having to pay the $75 reinstatement fee.

The bureau has sent 40,000 notices since the program started in December and 86 percent of those mailed were returned with "positive proof" of insurance.